


Start of Something New

by HadrianDC



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Parenting, Child Abuse, Denial, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 12:53:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15534666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HadrianDC/pseuds/HadrianDC
Summary: Has anyone else noticed how neglectful the Fentons are? Well I made a whole story on what would happen if someone stepped in and made Danny's (and Jazz's) life better and less dysfunctional. I also feel like no one talks about all the screwed up shit that Maddie and Jack have done and continue to do (also pretty sure they suffer from mental health issues). So I decided to expand upon this and the lack of Fenton family history and Ta Da! Enter Uncle Tensen, ready to save lives and chew people out.





	Start of Something New

**Author's Note:**

> So first time writing a story, hoping to keep up with it and be there for the long haul. If anyone feels I need to add any tags or see any mistakes please let me know. There is no physical abuse in this fic, just emotional abuse, neglect, and maybe verbal later own.
> 
> Also all my understanding of the social work system is based on my state and what I have learned in college at this time (I'm a social work major lol). Additionally, all the emotional abuse and reasoning/logical behind actions are based on my own experiences of emotional abuse I have suffered and is a reflection of others (also I have a psych minor as well).

“Daniel and Jasmine Fenton to the Principal’s office, I repeat Daniel and Jasmine Fenton to the Principal’s office. Thank you.”

“Dude, what is that about? Did you get caught sneaking off by the teachers again?” Tucker asked me.

“What, no! Or at least, I don’t think so…” I didn’t remember getting caught or any of the teachers paying special attention to me recently. Although I could be wrong, wouldn’t be the first time.

“Well, I suggest you hurry up then if you don’t want to be in worse trouble. They’ll probably just give you detention again.” Sam said. She had a point. With all the detentions I owed, I probably wouldn’t see my high school graduation for another ten years.

“But wait, if this is just about you then why are they also calling Jazz?”

“Probably to try and mentor me again or some new program with our parents involving ghosts. I see you guys at lunch if I can.” I started walking away as they wished me luck. Sam and Tucker were some of my best, and only, friends. They were always there for me when it mattered. Even when I was a complete dick to both of them. I really didn’t deserve them, and I already know I couldn’t survive without them. I stopped that train of thought before I started angsty-ing about _him_.

I met Jazz in front of the Principal’s office.

“Any idea what this is about?” I asked her quietly, aware of the secretary’s anxious glances.

“Nope, not a clue.” She answered, looking worried.

“It’s probably nothing. Dad probably wanted to try some kinda youth leadership club again.” I said as I remembered the “Ghost Getters”. Thank god that never took off. If the name wasn’t bad enough, the uniforms were. I shuddered. Purple and orange should never be made into a latex suit.

“I hope you’re right.” Jazz said as she bit her nail. Finally, after another twenty mins of me stealthily playing on my phone and Jazz flipping through her AP European History book, we were called back.

The Principal motioned us to follow her straight back into her office. We followed and saw two figures we had never seen. One was a middle-aged woman in casual attire and another was an Amity Park police officer. I tried extending my ghost sense to see if they were ghosts or possessed, but they seemed perfectly human. After the whole Spectra incident, I’m really cautious about new faces appearing at the school. The Principal gestured for us to sit down. Jazz and I did reluctantly.

“Danny, Jazz, this is Kathryn Hayes with Children and Youth Services and Officer Todd Havoc with APPD. They wanted to speak to you about some news they received. They have informed me of everything and they don’t mean either of you harm. This is a very private conversation so I will let you all get acquainted and discuss present matter. Officer Havoc, if you could inform my secretary when you are done that would be very appreciated.” Principal Ishiyama said, then walked out the door.

“What is this about? Are our parents hurt or…!?” Jazz blurted out, panicked. I could understand why. CYS and the Police were only brought in for two reasons. And neither of those were good. Part of me hoped it had something to do with Phantom for once. Then at least this knot of unease could go away and I could call everyone to figure what to do. However, if this was about Phantom then they probably would have brought in the GIW and not the Amity Park Police.

“No, no both of your parents are fine. We were both actually more concerned about you two.” The women said. The man beside her nodded.

“Yes, we have a few questions for you both. Nothing to worry about, we have your best interests at heart. We wanted to check in and see how you guys are doing. Being the kids of Paranormal Investigators must be hard.” Officer Havoc looked to both of us. He looked to be in his late thirties with sandy blond hair and hazel eyes. He had a gentle and reassuring air about him. He looked at both of us, not unkindly, for an answer. I looked over at the woman. She was brunette, medium height with brown eyes. She was wearing a plain t-shirt with a green cardigan and denim jeans. Kathryn Hayes nodded encouragingly in response to her partner’s question. Jazz answered for the both of us.

“About as well as any kid I suppose, a tad more social embarrassment some days but nothing abnormal. Tell me, what is this really about? You don’t get called here unless it’s serious.” I suppressed a laugh. She was right.

The woman sighed and started to speak, crossing her legs.

“Alright, Jasmine. We had a call in the past forty-eight hours stating that your brother had very serious injuries on his stomach and that this wasn’t the first time he came to school injured. As you know, all staff members of this school are mandated reporters, meaning if they suspect that a child is being injured they must report it to the police. Now, it is my duty to follow up on that report and decide where to go from here.” I paled instantaneously. If she was talking about the injury on my abdomen that I thought she was, then I’m done for.

I got it battling Skulker yesterday before school. He decided to start using trained ghost animals to try and capture me. I defeated them, but seeing as they were large cats they scratched me deeply. The cuts had healed for the most part, but there was still bruising. I tried thinking of an excuse but my mind was blank.

“You can’t possibly think that our parents hurt him, can you?! They love us, they would never put us in harm’s way!” She yelled, starting to get worked up. I saw tears developing in her eyes and her hands were clenched as she leaned forward. Jazz was partially right. My parents loved half of me. The other, well…there was a reason I hadn’t told them. I just can’t risk it, they mean too much to me.

“Jasmine, sweetie, we just want to know the truth and stop your brother from getting hurt. If you could answer some questions for us , we can resolve this a lot quicker and possibly get you home. Alright?” Mrs. Hayes replied calmly in face of Jazz’s anger. I was petrified. I knew one wrong answer would get us taken away. Jazz would only have to spend a couple of months in the system before she became an adult. I, on the other hand, had _three_ years. Three years without seeing my parents, possibly even my friends, all while hiding my ghost self and “extracurricular activities”. I don’t know if I could cope with that.

The fact that they could even suggest my parents were abusive was preposterous. I would laugh if I wasn’t so terrified. This had to be some scheme from Vlad or even one of the other ghosts. Maybe I was stuck in a dream.

“Alright, we’ll answer your questions then.” Jazz replied. They both nodded their thanks.

“How often do your parents cook meals for both of you?” Hayes asked.

“We usually get breakfast ourselves, there’s always food for us to eat. Although, occasionally Mom will make us breakfast like pancakes or waffles. Our parents usually leave food already made or prepared in the fridge for lunch on the weekends and dinner. They have very important jobs you understand, they have to protect the town from ghosts and they get quite busy you see. You do believe in ghosts, don’t you?” Jazz rambled. I could see she calmed down, but was still really nervous.

“Oh yes, of course I believe in ghosts. I live a town over, but I come often enough it’s hard to deny after all. Tell me, how often are these meals contaminated with ectoplasm or other substances?” She questioned, crossing her leg. Jazz shook in anger.

“How does that have anything to do with this?!” My sister exclaimed.

“Please answer the question, Jasmine.”

“Sometimes, very rarely. It only happens when they are extremely busy and don’t have time to worry about it. But Danny and I are careful and know not to eat it. Both of our parents taught us lab safety and how to dispose of unsafe chemicals.” Jazz finished puffing out her chest. I remember how proud Jazz looked when our parents thought Jazz was old enough to enter the lab. She thought she was so grown up with this new “responsibility” she had. Although they told me immediately after her so it didn’t seem like such a big deal to me.

“And at what age did they teach you these protocols?” Hayes asked.

“When I was nine and Danny was seven so we would always be safe if they had to leave because of an emergency.” Mrs. Hayes made a note on the notepad beside her.

“And how often did they you alone because of these ‘emergencies’?” I could physically feel the air quotations and they felt like a weight on my chest.

“I don’t see why that has anything to do with this. Our parents aren’t abusive and they care about us! That is all that should matter!” She sputtered. I couldn’t speak. I felt frozen and numb, like I was trapped within the confines of my own body.

“Alright, that’s enough questions. Mr. Fenton, could you please remove your shirt so I can look at your abdomen?” I gulped, and clenched my hands.

“Um, I really prefer not to. I have really low self-esteem and I’m really scrawny and just, how ‘bout we not? Cool? Cool.” I stammered.

“Mr. Fenton, the sooner you show us your injuries the sooner we can resolve this matter.” Mr. Havoc looked at me imploringly. I glanced at Jazz and she looked just as lost as me. I searched the room, trying to look for a way out of this situation. There was none unless I wanted to reveal my secret.  My hands shook as I grasped my shirt and lifted it over my head.

Both Mrs. Hayes’ and Officer Havoc’s eyes widen. Honestly, my stomach looked a lot better than it did yesterday. The scratches healed and there was just bruising left. It looked like someone hit me with enormous blue and purple paintballs that covered three quarters of my stomach. I guess to an outsider it did look pretty bad.

“Alright, well I am going to need pictures of your abdomen and any other injuries you have and then Mrs. Hayes can discuss what will be occurring after.” After 15 minutes of being examined and assuring them that I didn’t have any more injuries (YES I would have noticed it’s my BODY), the police officer left a card for both Jazz and I. After he left, Mrs. Hayes readjusted herself and started packing up her papers.

“Alright, well I have already paid your parents a visit before I arrived here to speak with you. What’s going to happen is that CYS is going to do an in-depth investigation to decide what is the best course of action for both of you. For now, I am placing you with your paternal uncle since he was the only emergency contact listed on your school file and has a schedule that is best suited to taking care of both of you.” She got up and walked towards the door, looking back to see if we were following her. We both jumped up and raced out the door.

“What do you mean Uncle?! We’ve never known about him before, are you sure he’s listed?” Jazz asked. I couldn’t agree more. All our lives we only ever heard of Aunt Alicia from Mom’s side, never from the Fenton side. If he really existed, why were we only hearing about him now. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. The only time coincidences occurred in my life was when ghosts were involved. And this reeked of one. Because seriously, this is just like with Vlad. ‘Oh, hey Danny, you know that long lost friend I had in college I never talked about well we’re going to go see him. Sounds fun, right?’ Boom, turns out to be an evil ghost. This is probably some scheme by Ghost Writer or Walker or something. No way we just didn’t know about a random uncle. Especially one listed as our emergency contact? No freaking way!

Mrs. Hayes walked out of the office, back towards the waiting room. I could tell Jazz was fuming trying to figure out a way to get out of this mess and outsmart the government. In the waiting room was the silhouette of man. He was about 5’8” or something like that with black hair like mine. As we got closer, he turned around and I was awe struck. He was almost a carbon copy of me! Sure, small features were different like our eye shape, but the eye color, hair color, and facial shape were all reminiscent of my features. He had his hair styled a little differently with the sides and back shorn shorter than the top, with layered bangs. I knew I didn’t look that similar to my dad, and if this guy was really my uncle this would explain where a lot of my features came from. He smiled upon seeing us.

“Hi Mr. Fenton, I’m Kathryn Hayes and I will be handling Jasmine and Daniel’s case from now on. If you ever need to reach me, here is my card. Jasmine, Daniel, this is your Uncle Daniel Fenton. Confusing, I know but I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Is there anything you need from me, Mr. Fenton?” She laughed as she said the last part, like our names were some cosmic joke. More like another weird coincidence. Could he be a clone? No, he would look identical and I don’t think Vlad could make a clone this much older and stable. It wouldn’t fit with his whole ‘Be my creepy son/apprentice and renounce your father! We shall drink blood at dawn!’ Okay, maybe that last part wasn’t true but still. Something just doesn’t feel right about this. ‘Daniel’ (if that’s even his name) finished talking to the social worker and turned to us.

“Alright so it’s probably been stressful so I’ll try to go easy on you guys. Do you have any nicknames or preferences that you go by? I can’t imagine you teenagers going by such proper names.” I could tell Jazz was shocked. Usually adults would just call us whatever they felt like, whether they referred to our last names or first names. Especially Jazz. She seemed so mature and refined people assumed she would embrace _Jasmine,_ but she actually hated it. She said to her, Jasmine seemed full of conservative conformity and toxic nostalgia for the ‘good old days’. Whatever that meant.

“I go by Jazz, uh, Uncle Fenton.”

“And you?” He turned to me instead of waiting for Jazz to answer for me. Which, wow. That was also rare. Usually people just talked to my sister because I didn’t seem ‘mature’ enough. Like Mrs. Hayes and Officer Havoc. They just focused their attention of Jazz. Which to be fair she kinda decided to speak for me, rude. But usually I was overlooked so for him to give me his undivided attention was new. The only time I got this much attention normally is when I’m called a freak, publicly humiliate myself, or I’m Phantom.

“I, uh, go by Danny.” I finish lamely, hanging my head.

“Cool. So in order to avoid confusion, you guys can just call me Uncle Tensen.”

“Is that short for something?” Jazz asked, her interest piqued.

“It’s short for my middle name actually. Its Christensen. Kind of a mouthful, am I right? So just Tensen is fine. Are you kids hungry?” I blinked and realized he was right. I was famished. I looked at the clock and saw that we missed lunch. That explained why.

“Yeah, we could eat, right Jazz?” I looked her.

“Yeah, that sounds great.” She smiled.

We followed him to his car. It was hatchback, although I didn’t recognize what kind. It was spacious inside with plenty of leg room so I didn’t complain. We all got in and he started the car. He asked us what we wanted and we all decided on some classic diner food. It was alright. We asked him where he was from and where he was all these years we never heard of him.

He told us back when were little, he was around. But him and Dad had a big fight and neither never contacted one another. He told us how I was named after him, and that he wanted to be in contact with us but he wanted to Dad to fix his errors. Whatever that meant. We eventually decided to leave. He said that we would stay with him until this was all resolved and to not worry about anything. He wanted us to be normal teenagers and to live our life. It was oddly reassuring. Most of the adults around us wanted to play these roles and learn these lessons so they could treat us like adults instead of being reckless children. The lack of pressure was honestly kinda great. He drove us about fifteen minutes out of inner city Amity Park, where it was more wooded and secluded. We asked why he lived out here and he explained it was a last-minute move and it was the only place that had enough bedrooms for everyone. He also like his privacy, which hey it worked to my benefit as Phantom.

The house was a cabin style two story house. Being away from everyone and the city was sort of relaxing, especially when he told us to think of this as a vacation. Uncle Tensen told us to try and get some rest, tomorrow we would be able to get some more of our stuff to stay here. Although when we mentioned seeing our parents, he told us that we wouldn’t be allowed until the matter was settled. I sent Tucker and Sam a short version of what happened and turned my phone to vibrate, knowing that if they were awake they would be blowing me up any minute. I didn’t want to deal with their questions on top of my own. I didn’t know what my future was going to look like and I just wanted to sleep until this all blew over. On the plus side, at least Jazz is with me and it’s the CYS that took me not the GIW.


End file.
